Once again BST has arrived in central London – and with it the start of summer. Since 2013, the concert series has taken over Hyde Park for two weekends every June and July (expanding to three last year), with artists such as Elton John, Eagles, the Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, Celine Dion, Stevie Wonder, Kylie Minogue, Blur, The Who, Tom Jones and Bon Jovi all performing on the Great Oak Stage.
This year’s lineup features headliners including Guns ‘n’ Roses, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, BLACKPINK, Take That, Billy Joel and Lana Del Rey, along with a host of other acts performing on smaller stages around the site. We were lucky enough to be there yesterday to see this year’s opening headliner P!nk – more on her set here – as well as plenty more artists throughout the day. Here’s who we saw – and what we made of them…
Opening the day on the Rainbow Stage was Mae Stephens, who’s rapidly become a TikTok sensation for her cheeky, funky pop songs. Her upbeat set featured everything from jokes about the heatwave to dissing terrible exes in ‘F*** Yo’ and the kiss-off ‘Say You Don’t Love Me Any More’, which saw the crowd clapping along and featured a singalong chorus (and a complete contrast to the next song, the sweet, playful ‘Make Me A Mrs’), as well as the oddly affectionate ‘Boozy B****’ dedicated to ‘that one drunk friend’. The standout track, however, was ‘Stranger’, a soaring, emotional ballad about her imposter syndrome which featured some absolutely incredible notes. For her final song, the smash hit ‘If We Ever Broke Up’, she donned her trademark sunglasses and delivered the irresistibly catchy number with plenty of sass and swagger. It was a great start to the day and she’s definitely someone I’ll be looking out for, especially ahead of the rest of her next single, the tongue-in-cheek ‘Mr Right’.
Fresh off the back of supporting Taylor Swift on her Eras Tour in the US, Gayle kicked things off on the Great Oak Stage with the rocky ‘Everybody Hates Me’, which set the template for much of her set. Songs like the dramatic ‘Leave Me For Dead’, ‘Love Starved’ and ‘Don’t Sleep As Good As I Used To’ had a fierce, fiery quality about them, whilst her cover of Alanis Morrissette’s ‘You Oughta Know’ showed off the belt in her voice really well. I also loved her energy on stage as she span around whilst playing her guitar, styled out a ‘really fancy trip’ on breakup song ‘Alex’, jammed out with her band and encouraged the audience to clap along and jokingly boo her drummer Andrew for messing up the set list, as well as chanting along to her breakthrough track ‘abcdefu’ on the acapella ending. Fans of early Avril Lavigne and Paramore should definitely keep her on their radar – I suspect there’s going to be big things in store for her in the future.
Sam Ryder is always an utter joy to watch live (as evidenced in our review of his recent UK tour) and he was just as sunny as the glorious weather in Hyde Park on the Great Oak Stage. He kept the crowd’s energy up throughout, encouraging them to sing and clap along on the likes of the uplifting ‘Somebody’, ‘Without You’ – which mixed a dance beat with emotional lyrics – ‘Deep Blue Doubt’ and recent single ‘Mountain’. Alongside this, he threw in a wicked guitar solo on ‘Put A Light On Me’, played with the crowd in a call-and-response before the rock-influenced ‘Tiny Riot’ and delivered some great vocal runs on his mash-up of ‘You Got The Love’, ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ and ‘Misery Business’. After an emotional rendition of the moving ballad ‘Fought And Lost’, he closed his set with ‘SPACE MAN’, which saw him jamming out with his band and telling the crowd (who sang along to every word) “thank you for the best birthday present ever”.
Over on the Rainbow Stage, Sam Tompkins provided a complete change of pace with his mostly acoustic performance. Highlights included ‘the one upbeat song of the set’ Find Someone, as well as the touching tribute to his grandfather ‘Bloodline’ and ‘See Me’, a tender ballad about his battle with body dysmorphia. He closed the set with the powerful ‘Who Do You Pray To’, the title track of his recent EP, and single ‘Lose It All’ which delivered a soft, romantic moment that provided a nice balance to his self-deprecating, wry humour in between songs.
Closing out the day’s entertainment before headliner P!nk was Gwen Stefani. She mixed tracks from her No Doubt days like ‘Hey Baby’, ‘Sunday Morning’, ‘It’s My Life’ and ‘Underneath It All’ with her solo hits, including 90s-influenced new single ‘True Babe’ and opener ‘The Sweet Escape’, which took on a jazzy feeling due to the trombone riff. Among the standout tracks for me were ‘Just A Girl’ (which she described in her intro as “more relevant than it’s ever been”), raucous audience singalongs to ‘Don’t Speak’ and ‘Spiderwebs’, and her performance of ‘Wind It Up’ and ‘What You Waiting For?’ which saw her sitting on an enormous throne as multicoloured cupcake props swirled around the stage. As well as that, she threw in a special guest appearance from rapper Eve, who joined her for ‘Rich Girl’ and ‘Let Me Blow Ya Mind’, before finishing the set with the anthemic ‘Hollaback Girl’ which featured – what else? – giant bananas as props for her dancers. It really was a privilege to see her live and she showed just why she’s been in the business for decades.
Overall BST Hyde Park delivered a brilliant day of music in the sunshine that provided the perfect build-up to the headline act. My personal standouts were Sam Ryder and Gayle, but all the performers had fantastic energy and showed just why it’s still one of the best summer concert series around. If you get the chance to go it’s really worth arriving early and checking out some of the acts before the headliners as well as on the smaller stages – you never know who you might discover.
BST Hyde Park 2023 takes place from Friday 23rd to Sunday 9th July at Hyde Park in London. For more information and tickets please visit https://www.bst-hydepark.com/
